#HelloMyNameIs
Vienna-Jaye and I am an Orthoptist in the Eye Department at Dorset County
Hospital. I graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2017, I had previous
personal experience of Orthoptics when I was much younger. I was seen by an
Orthoptist pretty much from birth until the age of 6 years old. I’m lucky
enough to currently work with one of the Orthoptists that treated me when I was
a child! I have worn glasses since I was 18 months old and had patching
treatment as well as squint surgery.
Orthoptics
is a relatively small profession, I’ve found that people have usually only
heard about it if they have been seen by an Orthoptist or they work in a
hospital. Orthoptists are able to practice as soon as they have qualified due
to the wide range of placements undertaken during study at university. Whilst studying
at Sheffield I went on a total of 33 weeks of placements, from Leeds all the
way down to Torquay in Devon!
Earlier this year I was honoured to
be given the opportunity to curate the @NHS Twitter account. This is run by
patients and NHS staff for a week with free reign to share messages and engage
with the public. I used this opportunity to promote Orthoptics as a profession
and increase people’s awareness of what we do. I used photos, videos and polls
and had over 665,000 impressions in a week, in other words my posts were seen a
lot!
Outside of
social media I’ve been involved in other outreach events too. I volunteered at
a national careers fair in November and spoke to hundreds of students, teachers
and parents about Orthoptics. We were able to show people what some patients
with Nystagmus or ‘wobbly eyes’ see everyday with a virtual reality app on a
mobile phone. Orthoptists often see patients with Nystagmus regularly as we can
monitor, manage their condition and provide advice and support.
Closer to
home I’ve been invited to speak at several local schools about Orthoptics and
my journey into the profession. I’ve spoken at my old secondary school and
local primary schools. I’ve even been on television promoting Orthoptics! Most
recently, I was at a launch event for ‘Inspiring Dorset’, this allowed lots of
people from a variety of professions to speak to year 4 and 5 children at a
local school about our jobs. We were able to make children aware of jobs they’d
never heard of and start to break down their stereotypes about who can do
certain jobs. If you are an Orthoptist and keen to talk to local school
children about your job, sign up to www.inspiringthefuture.org and you could be invited to these events too!
In my day
job I’ve taken on the role of Work Experience lead for Orthoptics, this means
that I am responsible for organising shadow days for any students (aged 16+)
from schools interested in finding out if Orthoptics could be for them. Contact
your local Orthoptic department if you want to find out more.
I really
enjoy spreading the message about Orthoptics and encouraging people to find out
more about what we do. If you want to find out more, have a look at www.orthoptics.org.uk or search #ISeeTheDifference on Twitter.
Vienna-Jaye
Burchell
New Graduate Rep, EPDC for BIOS
Orthoptist, Dorset County Hospital
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